


To Stay By His Side

by ReleasingmyInsanity



Category: Little House on the Prairie (TV)
Genre: Biromantic Chararacter, Canon-Typical Christian Themes, Multi, Polyamory, introspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:00:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28487961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReleasingmyInsanity/pseuds/ReleasingmyInsanity
Summary: Charles Ingalls muses on his feelings towards his friend Isaiah Edwards.
Relationships: Caroline Ingalls/Charles Ingalls, Isaiah Edwards/Charles Ingalls
Kudos: 3





	To Stay By His Side

**Author's Note:**

> Note that I haven’t seen very many episodes so this is based on the few episodes that I have seen and what I found on Wikipedia.

When he had first befriended Isaiah Edwards, Charles Ingalls had done so out of compassion, out of a desire to help, out of Christian charity. But as they spent more time together, Charles’ feelings toward Isaiah began to change.

Before long, Isaiah was Charles’ best friend. And he was realizing more and more just how right it seemed to have Isaiah by his side.

He came to realize that he loved Isaiah. Not the love of brothers, or of a good friend, or even the all-encompassing Christian love that he read about in his Bible. No, he loved Isaiah the way he loved his wife. His Caroline. He wanted to hold Isaiah. To protect him. And to promise him that he would be safe. That Charles would never let anything hurt him again.

Caroline had distrusted Isaiah when they first met. She found him brash and rude, and worried about his past as a drinking man. Unsure whether he was safe around the children. As Charles helped him to regain his faith and move on from his past, however, Caroline started to warm up to him, little by little.

It was the first Christmas after they moved from the big woods, when Caroline truly came to like Isaiah. After a very hard year, Isaiah came to see them with gifts. Almost freezing to death just to get there. Telling a story about meeting Santa Claus and helping him. Giving presents to the girls, new tin cups and peppermint sticks for treats. He brought Caroline sweet potatoes. From the way she smiled, Charles could tell that she had completely accepted Isaiah as a friend.

It was that night that Charles realized his friendship with Isaiah had deepened into something stronger than friendship, and that he loved him. But he wasn’t sure if it was right.

Some nights, when Caroline and the children had gone to sleep, Charles would stay up by the fire, reading the Bible. He had read it many times before, but now he poured over it, looking for wisdom, for guidance. Was the way he felt for Isaiah a sin?

Leviticus said that a man should not lie with a man as with a woman. But he didn’t want to lie with Isaiah so that didn’t matter. Neither did Romans 1:27 speaking of lust. His feelings for Isaiah were pure. The Bible comforted Charles. Nothing in it indicated that it was wrong to love his friend as he did.

In fact, the more that he read, the more Charles began to believe that the Bible supported his love for his friend. The Bible showed many times the importance of love between two people who were not man and wife.

In the book of Ruth, Ruth’s love of Naomi lead her to stay by her side even though it was not advantageous to do so. Choosing to go where she went and not to be parted from her. 1 Samuel said that Jonathan loved David as he did his own soul. Charles knew then that loving his friend was right and he no longer worried that it was a sin.

What did worry him was Caroline. Was he being unfaithful to her? His love for Isaiah didn’t change the way he felt about her, but was he committing adultery in his heart? He would never intentionally hurt her. But was he hurting her simply by loving his friend?

Charles finally got the answer he needed late one evening after they had invited Isaiah over for supper. The girls had gone to bed, and Isaiah had left, giving Charles a friendly shoulder squeeze, and the gentle smile that he had learned to understand as Isaiah loving him back.

Charles stood outside the front door, enjoying the evening air, when Caroline joined him. Slipping her hand into his she rested her head against his shoulder. “You love him,” she said. A statement rather than a question.

Charles startled, but he wouldn’t lie to Caroline. “Yes.” He told her simply.

The two stood quietly for another moment before Charles spoke.

“Caroline, I…”

“No Charles. No explanations needed.” Caroline patted his arm reassuringly. “Do you love me?”

Charles turned so he could see her fully. “More than anything.”

Caroline smiled. “Then that’s all I need to know.” And she leaned in to kiss him.

A weight was lifted off of Charles that day. He knew now that his feelings for his friend and his feelings for his wife could exist together and neither had to be more important than the other. It didn’t matter whether he and Isaiah ever voiced their feelings, or expressed them in any way other than they would show affection to any good friend. All that mattered was that they spent their lives at each other’s side.

Some months later, Charles made up his mind to speak his feelings. Isaiah was helping with the farm for a few days. After the work was done for the day, the two men sat outside for a while enjoying each other’s company. Finally it became late and the evening had to end.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Isaiah said finally, beginning his walk home.

“See you tomorrow.” Charles hesitated. “…Isaiah?”

Isaiah turned and looked back at him.

“I love you.”

Isaiah smiled. “I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> I freely admit that I fudged the timeline. It just fit the story I wanted to tell better.
> 
> It’s been very unusual for me to write a story with so much religion/faith/Bible reading in it, but it seemed necessary for this character.
> 
> Pretty much none of the oft-quoted “anti-gay” passages in the Bible are actually anti-gay. And one in Paul’s letters was even added long after Paul had written it. But I can’t imagine that Charles Ingalls, real or fictional, would have known that.
> 
> I want you guys to know that I was so committed to trying to be accurate here that I tried to determine what printing of the Bible he would have. (For some reason this info doesn’t seem to be on the internet even though their family Bible is extant, so my best guess was King James.) AND I checked my annotated scholarly Bible to see if there were any translation notes on mentioned passages. I was one class short of a minor in religion and I’m gonna make use of it.
> 
> Amusingly, several of the passages I looked up are completely different in the King James version than they are in more modern translations.


End file.
